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Just forty-five minutes away from the city, one can find Dauin, the perfect place to enjoy the island life. With tranquil views of the sea, one cannot help but be recharged from the change of pace in this quiet town.

Dauin is popular for marine sanctuaries (Masaplod, Luca, Dauin and Mainit) and geothermal hot springs (Mt Talinis Geothermal Reserve, Mag-Aso and the Malungcay Hot Springs). Since we had our own beautiful beach house, we decided that we’d just stay at home for the rest of the afternoon frolicking under the sun and enjoying the sea.

With a shoreline that stretched on for miles, we can’t help but feel a bit #blessed for having the beach all to ourselves.

The rocky beach was on its low-tide making our walk to to the sea a bit of a torture. The water was clear and clean although there were no visible marine life for us to stalk except for those extremely little fishes. The experience was enough for us where we enjoyed cooling off the hot afternoon with some drinks on the sea.

Since we have not been able to make a trip to the super market since our arrival in Dumaguete, we decided to head out for the city after our swim. We had to load up on our goodies, purchase some items we’ve forgotten and enjoy a fresh seafood dinner. Since we did not have our own private van, we hung out at the “Unity” corner in hopes to catch a Ceres bus to the city.

It took longer than expected and we found ourselves being stalked by insects. And eventually, patiently waiting like locals by resting on the rocks.

Thankfully, our host was going out for a date with his girlfriend. He gave us a ride and so we were back in his pick-up truck —- the girls dog-piled inside while the boys and I hung on to our dear lives at the back.

After a drive that numbed our butts and stung our eyes, we were dropped off at Hayahay Treehouse and View Deck. It was a bit farther off the main boulevard but it was known to be one of the more popular local restaurants given its fresh catch and live music.

We were hangry (hungry + angry) from the long drive and having nothing but alcohol in our bellies since our last meal at 11 am. As soon as we sat down, we picked out every thing that we liked on the menu and tried our best to patiently wait for our orders to come out. The stress was multiplied by the fact that we were working on a time constraint given that Robinsons Dumaguete and the Ceres bus station both close early.

Not really sure if the service was slow or it were our tummies that felt the time go by slowly. We wiped out dinner pretty fast and found ourselves waiting again. This time it was for our van. (During a trip to the loo, I spotted Hayahay’s special van service that can drive us back to Dauin for only 900 pesos. We added in an extra P100 pesos to allow us to have a short detour at Robinsons Dumaguete.)

We were excited to ride a nice and brand new Hi-Ace Van (just like in the ad’s photo) since we’ve been riding in an old pick-up truck since our arrival. Our faces turned sour when we found ourselves going towards an extremely old van that had no aircon, not enough seats and a CD that played only about three tracks on repeat.

The exact model of our van with NO aircon.

I asked the driver, “Kuya, hindi ba nila sinabi na 10 kami? Di kami kasya dito” (English translation: “Sir, didn’t they tell you that we were 10? We don’t fit in the van.”) He responded, “Okay lang yan, tabi-tabi nalang!” (English translation: It’s okay, just sit beside each other”). He was so cheerful and found nothing wrong with the situation that it was difficult to get mad. So..we found ourselves dog-piled once again. We comforted ourselves that we were on our way to Robinsons Dumaguete and there was no longer a need to rush for the last bus trip.

After one of the most stressful rides to our home (we got lost in the darkness because all corners and houses looked the same in the dark! lol!), we were happy to be back home to our Dauin Party House after our city misadventure. ❤

The #DumaguetItOn Weekend begins…

And so, join me as I track back on our weekend island adventure in the following blog posts…